Jessica Moore's Wuthering Heights reading diary

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“They do live more in earnest, more in themselves, and less in surface change, and frivolous external things.” (Wuthering Heights, pg 45)
This quote summarizes the world of an introvert. According to an extremely reliable source (*cough, Wikipedia, cough), Emily Bronte spent much of her life in a secluded manner. She did not have many friends and chose to remain either indoors or out in nature, but not in the company of many other people. I said all of that to say this: she understood a lot of the world around her because she observed rather than anticipated. She illustrates emotions brilliantly because she observed them, understood them, and then transferred that knowledge to her novel.

“A golden afternoon of August- every breath from the hills so full of life, that it seemed whoever respired it, though dying, might revive.” Wuthering Heights, pg 195.
        With so many of the characters dying, the theme of life and death presents itself regularly in this story. Mrs. Dean, the story teller in this part, speaks of the liveliness of nature while she walks outside. In other instances she weighs the gravity of the death of those around her. So aside from lots of people dying, she expertly shows the contrast between the liveliness of the world around her and the gloom and weightiness of death, interesting topics to contrast.
     In addition to the contrast between life and death, the speaker describes hatred and love at their most extremes. “I could not picture a father treating a dying child as tyrannically and wickedly as I afterwards learnt Heathcliff had treated him, to compel this apparent eagerness; his efforts redoubling  the more imminently his avaricious and unfeeling plans were threatened with defeat by death.”Wuthering Heights, Pg 191.While Heathcliff vehemently hates his son, they also describe the depth of love Cathy shows her father, Edgar. “I pray every night that I may live after him; because I would rather be miserable than that he should be- that proves I love him better than myself.” Wuthering Heights, Pg 170.
   In essence, the author compares and contrasts total opposites. She shows what living and embracing life feels like, and travels to the dark depths of death; how much someone can truly hate another, while this true love that pushes people to the breaking point also exists.

How the storyteller describes a story influences us in our perception of it. Their biased slant becomes ours. Their past experiences influence the story they tell and thus influence us differently than if someone else told the same tale. Mrs. Dean, the narrator for much of Wuthering Heights, accomplishes a unique feat: telling the story as exact as possible, without incessantly giving her opinions. She describes people’s character as they are, describing characters like Mr. Heathcliff as, “A rough fellow, rough as a saw-edge, and hard as whinstone!” pg25. Though the description seems a harsh one, the tenant understands her exact explanation of his character.
Not only does the speaker and the audience matter, but what and how the speaker relates their words. Mrs. Dean has keen insight into their lives, but perceives the necessary information and filters out unnecessary chatter. For instance, Mrs. Dean clearly has a distinct dislike for the servant, Joseph, however, she doesn’t push on the tenant her opinions of him, but only tells of him things that relate to the rest of the story. Without describing things to explicitly, she paints for both the tenant, Mr. Lockwood, and for the reader a sometimes lively and yet sullen portrait of the life she experienced. She must have glowed when describing young Cathy as, “ and watching her, my pet, and my delight, with her golden ringlets flying loose behind, and her bright cheek, as soft and pure in its bloom as a wild rose, and her eyes radiant with cloudless pleasure.” Pg 157.
In order for her to describe things so vividly, her intellect must be far more sharp than the typical, gossip of a housemaid. She observed, and though she reproved Cathy for her wrong attitudes, showing she held a sense of morality and decency, she didn’t seem to view things neither on a negative nor positive, slant, just how a storyteller should be.

Because of the unchanging personalities of many if not all of the characters in this book, consistency seems a logical theme in Wuthering Heights. Anywhere from the monstrous Heathcliff to the hypocritical Joseph, unlike in many modern novels and movies, the author has the characters remain as they were at the beginning of the book, no change of heart or realization of their wrong.
Like in the movie Gone with the Wind, the characters remain stubborn and unchanging. This theme only shows the author’s ability to maintain a character’s personality, a difficult thing no doubt. Bronte enunciates this unchanging nature at the end of the story with a conversation between Mrs. Dean and Heathcliff.
“You are aware, Mr. Heathcliff, that from the time you were thirteen years old, you have lived a selfish, unchristian life. Could it be hurtful to send for some one- some minister- to show you how very far you have erred from its precepts, and how unfit you will be for its heaven, unless a change takes place before you die?”
Mr. Heathcliff responds, “No minister need come; nor need anything be said over me- I tell you, I have nearly attained my heaven; and that of others is altogether unvalued, and uncoveted by me!” pg 245. Regardless of what transpired in his life, he remains true to his character and what he always has been. This shows only one of the many characters who, by the persistence of the author, maintain the same disposition as at the beginning of the story. Consistency of characters is but one of several underlying themes in this tale.